Voxer is my favorite app for staying in contact with people. Here is my friend Dana explaining what it’s like for her.

<Dana: Ok. Voxer is like a walkie-talkie app. It allows me to keep in contact with friends. Staying in contact with friends/family gets put on the back burner sometimes. It’s more of a convenient way to stay in contact with people you love. And I’m so glad that I was introduced to it.>

Whatsapp is another one that I use. Here is my Canadian friend, Sarah.

<Sarah: Whatsapp is a messaging application on your phone that you can use to talk to people around the world. It uses data instead of your telephone or text messaging. I can text/send pictures/talk to her any time and leave any message I want at any hour- and not worry about waking her up. I can vent/talk/tell your story without interruption and the person will respond and you end up having a conversation. It’s neat that way. That’s whatsapp for me.>

Viber is another one- and all three of these apps allow you to record your voice and deliver it to someone anywhere in the world, via the internet. You can also send text, pictures, videos, etc. All that is available on all of these- for free.

The differences between whatsapp and voxer – since these are the two I use most often- are that:

-Whatsapp is way more popular throughout the world.
-Voxer has a function where you can speed up the message (incase the person is drunk messenging you)

-Voxer tends to chew up more battery life and internet usage, somehow, but I like the quality of the message better.

-Whatapp messages will be saved forever as Voxer is only saved for 30 days unless you’re a subscriber.

-Whatsapp allows you to also call the person… Kinda like what Skype does.

Which is a great segue…. Skype is a program that uses the internet to make phone calls to other Skype members for free- or for a small fee, calling landlines and mobile numbers.

Now, while in SE Asia, my brother wanted to call his GF, Bonnie, in real time, because they’re old-skool like that… So they tested a few different apps:

<JOSH: I really liked using the facebook messenger app when communicating in Thailand. Because although it felt like skype and voxer and whatsapp would work- it didn’t work well. It took a long time to package/process the information, where as facebook messenger was instant. So I could call her, she would answer, we would talk- Voxer and Whatsapp is very much one-sided. That’s my thoughts on it.>

<Bonnie: Agreeing with Josh on those points- the thing with Skype and whatsapp the call connectivity wouldn’t remain constant and we would constantly get dropped calls. With facebook messenger the calls would continue and there would be less interferance on the call regardless of what the internet would be.>

This show’s about packing and not really doing a good job. So I asked my friend Victor at Victorstravels.com what mementoes he travels with.

<LN: I’m going to try to pronounce this…. afscheidskaart ING?

VT: Ha. No. (Pronounces it properly). It’s ING, really. It’s the bank. I used to work there. And afscheidskaart is a “Goodbye card”. I think it’s very sane/necessary to bring something from your own place on a trip- something personal- a window- that people have written. And this was a card that my team wrote to me when I left and I thought it was a nice thing to carry with me. And I was going for 6 months, if I was gone for a week, I wouldn’t bring it- but when you’re gone for so long you get in this zone and it’s nice to reflect a bit and open the card and remember “oh yea. Those people.”>

Also- as always- if you want to see photos and links of these things- go look at my

website LNLurie.com or Facebook page /whereisLN

Next and final week? LISTS! All the lists…

One last thing: My friend Dana voxed me this message a few days ago….

<DANA: “I’m almost done packing for Costa Rica. I have 1 small roller-bag and a small backpack. And I have some wiggle-room in the backpack. I have consolidated as much as I could- so thanks for the advice!”>